Sunday Morning Coming Down

I'm curious as to what motivates the in Arizona to decide state policies in the way they do.  SB 1062 should never have been passed in the first place. If you want to be a private organization that only serves your members, accepts no tax breaks and exemptions, it is a free country but there are limits to even that kind of freedom and it generates blow back. The Klan may enjoy freedom of speech but an endorsement from them, is something to run away from The law as passed seemed unconstitutional on its face and flies against just about every civil rights act passed. Once you pass the threshold of putting yourself out in the public I don't think you can take all back. I think the use of religion to justify discrimination that would otherwise be illegal is wrong. In the public arena Arizona's ideas about immigration have caused folks to leave the state.  Allowing folks to discriminate based on sexual preference for religious reason would have given another group of folks...

The Beaver in Oklahoma after three months in South Florida.  Trainer says he was a handful and then some as the bus was leaving Hialeah.  Maybe he had read something on the Weather Channel.  I am a little bit uncomfortable gloating about good weather here in the winter, for fear of setting off the Hurricane Spirits in August.  This weekend the Food Channel is everywhere on South Beach and there is an Art Show a couple of blocks away in Downtown South Miami. Sunday they will be forcing out a pick six pool at Hialeah that should be about $100,000 on Sunday.  I really doubt I will be the only ticket with 6 winners, but I would be really happy to split the pool with more than a few folks. Betting syndicates usually take down big pools and hopefully I won't be competing against too many sharks. My group will include folks who drink cranberry juice, bud lite, mojitos, and coke.  Last year the guy who cashed the only ticket on a smaller pool on closi...

The local public radio station has gotten their tail caught in a crack over how much the fund raising arm of the organization pays its the guy in charge of fund raising.  $400,000 is a lot of money to pay anybody in a non profit organization.  I remember Mr. Peyton when he was a founder of the Miami Runners Club. The Miami Herald wrote a story about grumbling on the WLRN Board and the School Board about Mr. Peyton's package. It would seem a lot of money to pay for an advertising sales person and maybe even a lot of money to pay someone who runs an advertising agency. A long time ago I was the advertising manager for the University of Miami Student Newspaper.  At the time it was a very good job and if you had a good product, in a good market and limited competition the advertisers came to you and there was very little selling going on. National Public Radio is a really nice franchise, but I'm of the opinion that Mr. Peyton has been overpaid and under performed. ...

It's Saturday Morning and the horse is about to get cleaned up prior a trip back to his stall, the feed bucket and some hay. Trainer reports that Beaver was feeling so good that he needed a little time on the walker. Should never wear anything white on the backside, or make sure you have a change in the car for the races.   Cruising who ran Friday, looked fine but seemed a little tired and the others in the barn will be visiting the vet prior to racing.  The meet is over for RW Quarters and the connections will be going on to Oklahoma after a short stop in Ocala.  Four more days of racing at Hialeah Park and then my race tracker experience will be put on hold for a while, unless I feel like driving to Remington Park, Prairie Meadows, or Canterbury Park in Minnesota, to eat some chalk. The breakfast burrito in the jocks cafeteria was awesome, pulled pork cheese and salsa verde.  I will be looking for some investors in a serious pick 6 ticket if there is a...

Sunday morning and I'm reviewing past performances rather than the newspaper.  Didn't sleep exceptionally well and wished we could have run the race at 8:00am.  Didn't want to mess around with the machines at the track.  Wanted to get down on the race and have a morning beer.  Left the TVG account almost cleaned out betting superfectas.  A little after 9:00am, Pat, aged 92 called to say she would be going to church, letting me know she needed a ride.  The beer would have to wait, dropping her off at church at 11:00am was no problem, more than a few folks could give her a ride home. 440 yards with a claiming price of $3,500, three year olds and up,  Beaver could win this race easily or he could have a problem at the starting gate.  Hopefully, Shanley Jackson would get the horse out of the gate without too many problems and run straight. When I got to the track there was an hour before the first race.  Since this was most likely his last ra...

One way or another I'm getting a little uncomfortable with the "like" button related to Facebook.  How could you like a car crash that kills anyone.  Maybe you like knowing about something for future reference but there is probably a better word or phrase that fits the bill. A wrong way crash killed a former student of my nephew and four others.  This disaster gets posted on Facebook and more than a few folks hit the like button.  I know they don't like it, in fact they probably are horrified by what they are reading and grief stricken. To err is human but the computer can take it to a new level.

I'm sure that receiving Social Security benefits encourages folks to retire and stop working.  It also allows them to continue eating and paying bills after they stop working.  It was started in an effort to spread available work around during the depression in the 1930's.  The recovery in the housing market has also encouraged folks to move to other places to be nearer their kids or to get better jobs or housing.  As I have gotten older I have become more aware of folks that continue working at a job to continue to get health care benefits for themselves or their spouse or to be able to keep their kids covered.  I've had a hip replaced and for a lot of insurance companies get that makes me a high risk case that would have been almost uninsurable until I qualify for Medicare except that I get a group rate for individual coverage as a member of a group of retired workers. The poor job market prospects for the long term unemployed and older workers bey...

Sometimes I wondered why they bothered publishing a newspaper on Tuesdays.  Some great metropolitan newspapers have scaled back and skip a day or double up on an edition to save a buck on production costs or just go internet. Tuesday, February 4, 2014 in the Miami Herald there were at least two stories that caught my attention. A kennel owner was charged with having forged documents related to vaccination records for greyhounds running in South Florida.  The vet whose signature was used died in 2010.  This story is a follow up to various drugs and syringes being found on the grounds of the kennels where the dogs live when they are not at the track racing.  There are legitimate drugs used theraputically for greyhounds. And the use of testosterone to keep female dogs from going in heat and allow them to keep running regularly is nothing new.  Barney O'Donnell is one of the largest kennel owners of racing greyhounds and his dogs have been banned from racing unt...

Sunday shortly after 1:05 pm Sunday, at Hialeah Park Stolicknaya will be running in the 2nd, a 440 yard race.  I should be an old hand at this by now.  This will be Stolicknaya's fourth race at Hialeah and if the horse runs well and has a little racing luck I will breathe a sigh of relief.  I'm both excited and a little bit nervous.  On paper, he should do well, but then again the Broncos were three point favorites There will be a new jockey and we will be running against $3,500 claimers.  Shanley Jackson in the irons and for once I know we have one of the best riders on the grounds guiding the Beaver. Running the horse for a $3,500 tag means that other trainers and owners might buy the horse and they might get a good deal.  The horse would go to another barn and the Thunderstruck Stable would have to look for another animal.  This is not all bad, these things happen and at this stage of the game I'm really not sure what plans the other partners mi...